I used both a Sounblaser live and Audigy before. emu does NOT have working sound level controls. Period.
However, you can use aucat (Did that part make it into current version?) to adjust its volume. You can also just use an external amp to change volume. I think I still have copies of a script I used before to control volume locally. Required a file to hold the starting and current values. None of the special features work, however, not even the joystick port as I understand. Still, if you get it working, they are fine. Chris Bennett